Contrary
by jonathanparkin
Summary: Inspired by the film Seven written by Andrew Kevin Walker, this CSI homage sees the team trying to track down a serial killer in the same vein as Mills and Somerset. This does contain spoilers for nonviewers of Seven. Please read and review


Entryway was a hip new restaurant on the Las Vegas strip. It had only been there for six months, but had rapidly become a favourite haunt for young couples to dine.

That particular night was an average one for Head Waiter Adam Berneche. Not quiet and not busy, but somewhere in between. He had to cover this night on his own, his manager having called in sick that afternoon. It had been tough without him, but he had coped just. He'd just dealt with a minor fracas in the kitchen between Stuart one of his waiters and one of the kitchen staff and was hoping for the rest of the evening to pass without any further problems.

No such luck. The male occupant of table 27, a young man called James Atwater walked towards him. The son of the current sheriff Rory Atwater, he was the most unpleasant person Adam had the opportunity of meeting.

"Can't you do something about that girl sitting next to me?" He demanded loudly. Adam who could when necessary put the fear of God into colleagues and diners alike, just looked at him darkly

"Her sniffling is putting me right off my food." James said as he moved closer to Adam's position on the lectern. "Do you know who my father is?" he asked.

"Mr Atwater, you neither scare me, nor intimidate me." Adam replied quietly. "I strongly suggest you retake your seat and continue with your meal. Because at this point, it is you who is causing a scene, not the young lady on table 24"

That's told him Adam thought with satisfaction as James slinked back to his table his tail between his legs. He was getting worried though about the young lady on table 24. Elizabeth McNeil was her name. She'd arrived shortly before seven that evening, asking to be seated at her boyfriend's table. He hadn't arrived then, but Adam sat her down nonetheless and she politely ordered a drink and declined a menu saying she'd wait for her boyfriend to turn up.

But that was two hours ago and he still hadn't turned up. She had been the model of restraint only leaving the table once to go to the toilet. She hadn't raised her voice to his staff or anything, but clearly now she was getting rather upset about her boyfriend's non appearance.

"Table 24's moved up to alcohol." One of his waitresses announced as she came to the bar. "One pint of bitter" Adam put it through the computer system and confidentially whispered in Gemma's ear.

"Has she asked for a menu yet?" Gemma shook her head. She was about to move off when Adam stopped her.

"I'll take it for her." He said. Gemma demurred and walked onto the floor to see if anyone else wanted something. Adam walked towards Elizabeth's table and put her drink in front of her.

"Thank you." She said.

"Are you sure we can't get you a menu?" Adam asked her. "You have been waiting for your boyfriend for over two hours now." Tears ran down Elizabeth's face

"I'll just give him another ten minutes." She replied. Adam not wanting to pry any further moved away. Suddenly the window next to Elizabeth shattered and her head slumped sideways. She'd been shot.

"Elizabeth McNeil." Brass told Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle as they arrived outside. "Winner of the Most Understanding Girlfriend Award 2005"

"Why is that?" Grissom asked him.

"She arrived for dinner shortly before seven. Shot at ten minutes past nine. The boyfriend never showed up." Brass explained. The Sheriff was just arriving to a phalanx of press corps stationed in the road way. He called for silence.

"I'll answer questions for ten minutes, and ten minutes only. If these questions do not come in a calm orderly fashion, I'm out of here."

"Someone's got their hands full." Grissom said to Sara with a grin as they walked inside.

So had Adam, the sheriff's son was now rapidly becoming the bane of his existence.

"Who is going to launder this shirt?" He was yelling. Sitting next to Elizabeth meant that he had taken the brunt of the shot to her head and was now covered in her blood.

"Mr Atwater. Just sit down and shut up." Adam said forcefully. He turned to Brass and the two CSI agents. "Please come this way."

David was already there and was examining Elizabeth's dead body.

"Must have been a sniper" He told them. "The entry wound is at the top of her head, the exit wound is near her neck." Brass didn't exactly look thrilled with this piece of information.

"We don't need another series of sniper attacks." He said. "This country was in so much fear the last time. I don't want to repeat it." David had finished his processing so Sara got to work.

"I was getting worried about her." Adam was telling Gil Grissom. "She didn't want a menu until her boyfriend, a Frank Parsons showed up." He paused. "If you're going out with a girl that gorgeous, would you keep her waiting two hours."

"You're talking to the wrong person, Mr Berneche." Grissom said with a smile. Sara called him over so he went across to her.

"I found this in her inside jacket pocket." Sara said holding it up with a pair of tweezers. It was a long rectangular envelope with the victim's name scrawled childishly in green crayon across the front. Grissom took it and looked closely scrutinizing it.

"Print it then sent it to Chandra back at the lab." Grissom told her. "We need to know if there's DNA on the envelope." Sara printed it managed to get a good set of prints of it and since their victim hadn't brought any ID with her, took a small blood sample as well from her table.

Warrick Brown and Nick Stokes were called to a death in a house in the residential area of Vegas. Sergeant O'Riley was waiting for them.

"Victim is in the living room." He said to the dynamic duo. "Name is Roger Scott." Warrick and Nick ducked under the tape and walked into the living room. The victim was in a chair and had been strangled with his own tie. The two CSIs had to step carefully round the room because right in front of the victim was a word spelt out in the carpet.

"Man, I hate these weird ones." Nick complained as he looked down. The word Kindness had been crudely poured into the carpet using some kind of liquid. They started processing, checking the body for hairs and fibres and taking photographs. The carpet stain was so big Warrick had to take pictures of it in two halves.

"I don't believe this." Nick said after a while. "There are no stray hairs on this guy whatsoever." Using an electrostatic print lifter they took off a shoe print near the body, but to the frustration of both of them, it was just a shoe shape, but no identifying marks.

The glass table in the middle of the room was printed to see if they could get any prints off that, and they came up with two different sets.

O'Riley was interviewing a woman in the kitchen in her late twenties.

"We used to be housemates." Terry Reynolds sobbed. "Then when I met my husband I moved out. He was so happy for me, even though he admitted that he loved me as well.

"Had he been in good spirits the last time you saw him." O'Riley asked her. Terry nodded.

Warrick and Nick had finished the processing. Roger's tie had been bagged and Warrick had taken a small sample of the dried liquid from the carpet. After they had packed up they went back to the lab.

"There's not much I can tell you that you don't already know." Doc Robbins told Gil "Victim died from a single shot to the head. Her stomach was largely empty, apart from the remains of a Ham and cheese sandwich which I presume was her lunch."

Grissom was looking at the body, his mind whirling.

"What are you thinking?" Robbins asked him.

"She was shot two hours after entering the restaurant." Grissom said. "If someone wanted to kill her why not do it when she first sat down. It's almost as if she was being punished for waiting."

"It is a little strange." Robbins agreed. "But then murder is sometimes."

Grissom's phone rang. It was Sara.

"I've got a print off that envelope, it belongs to a Stuart Michael, who has two priors for assault and is currently working at Entryway as a waiter."

Stuart Michael was not very happy at being woken up in the middle of the night, but when he soon calmed down when Brass outlined the penalties for non cooperation.

"This motorcycle courier came into the restaurant at about 9:15" Stuart told Brass and Sara. "He offered me $250 to put this envelope into this girl's jacket." Brass didn't look very impressed.

"Look I didn't know she was going to get shot in less than an hour's time." He said desperately.

"So let me get this straight." Brass summarized. "A motorcycle courier, wearing presumably full leathers and a motorcycle helmet, offers you money to put an envelope into the jacket of one of your customers. You didn't consider this request even remotely odd despite the fact that the envelope had the customer's name on the front of it in green crayon."

"It was 250 bucks man." Stuart replied. He was starting to panic and beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. He was well aware that a third strike against him would mean a life sentence. "That's nearly two weeks wages. Look I'm trying to make a decent life for myself here. I swear I had nothing to do with the girl's death. I was just told to deliver a letter."

Brass let him stew for fifteen seconds before telling him he had nothing to worry about and he and Sara left

"Sheriff, how's your son's trip to the laundry going." Grissom said to Rory Atwater with a wicked gleam in his eye.

"That isn't even remotely funny Gil." Rory growled. "Where are we?"

"When I know, you'll know" Grissom replied.

"Listen, the owner of Entryway is a hugely influential figure in this town." Rory reminded him. "The sooner we can clear this up, the better." With that the Sheriff left. Grissom walked down towards his office, but Chandra grabbed him before he got there.

"I've some good news and some bad news." She said. "The good news is I've confirmed your victim's name is Elizabeth McNeil. Her DNA is on the database at Las Vegas County General where she works as a doctor. The bad news is the envelope is self sealing, you don't lick it, so there's no DNA on the envelope. The contents are a bit strange though." She unfolded a piece of A4 paper in front of her with tweezers.

On the paper were cut out diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs from playing cards spelling out a single word; Patience

"Well she certainly had plenty of that." Grissom said. "In fact she was the perfect embodiment of it."

"You could almost praise the artistry of it, if it wasn't so weird." Chandra replied

Nick arrived just then wanting his DNA results.

"I've got good news and bad news for you as well." Chandra told him. "The epithials on the tie are a match to your victim. The good news is I've analysed the dried liquid next to the body. It's milk, full fat."

A light suddenly went off in Nick's head.

"The milk of human kindness, that's what was written in front of the body. Kindness."

"Are you sure?" Chandra said sharply.

"Yeah, it was this written this big on the floor." Nick said demonstrating with his hands. "You couldn't miss it."

"Has anybody seen the film Seven?" Chandra asked the CSI team. Sara put her hand up.

"I never saw you as a Brad Pitt fan Sidle." Nick said.

"Morgan Freeman, actually" Sara said blushing slightly.

"Well that movie was about a serial killer, killing people for committing in his eyes the seven deadly sins." Chandra explained

"Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Wrath, Pride, Lust." Sara recited proudly.

"Well for every deadly sin there's a contrary virtue which is it's diametric opposite." Chandra said picked up the piece of paper, with the cut out bits of playing cards. "Patience is the opposite of Wrath. Kindness is the opposite of Envy. Abstinence, Liberality, Diligence, Humility and Chastity are the others."

"We've got a copycat on our hands." Grissom said grimly. "A subversive one"

Catherine and Warrick were back at the restaurant with a laser guided machine and flexible dummy so they could trace the path of the bullet. Using Doc Robbins's notes they determined the path of the bullet and replicated that path through the dummy's head. They then used the laser to find the exact spot where the sniper would have fired from, which was an office across the way.

Catherine immediately called Brass so they could get a warrant to search the office

"Leanne, what's this." Sara said critically holding up a DVD box that sat on the reception desk.

"It's my copy of Seven" Leanne explained "Mr Grissom wanted to borrow it."

"You can't give him this." Sara insisted. "It's the wrong copy. If you were a true fan you'd have the 2-disc set which has the silver version."

"I am a true fan." Leanne told her. "I went to see it three times at the cinema, you didn't. Besides the 2-disc set is $12 more expensive."

"What are we discussing here?" a bemused Grissom asked. Sara picked up the DVD from the counter

"This is the wrong version." She told him "If you want to watch Seven the right way to watch it is the silver print in a darkened room. This isn't the silver print."

Grissom took the DVD from Sara's hands.

"I'm watching it for research, not as a piece of art" he replied thanking Leanne for bringing it.

Thomas Bell, the owner of Silver Acorn publishing wasn't very receptive to being woken up much earlier than he had originally wanted on his day off. He was even less receptive when he was told that his offices were used during the commission of a crime and they would have to be closed while CSI went through them.

"The press are going to have a field day with this you do know this don't you." He told Brass. "Not to mention lost profits."

"We'll be as quick as we can Mr Bell" Warrick assured him. Thomas opened the door and the two CSIs went to work, first using UV light to search for footprints. Having found none, they turned their attentions to the windows. The window that provided a clear shot of table 24 in Entryway had a small bullet casing lying on the ground.

"That's careless." Warrick observed, picking it up. The sill was dusted for prints but they came up zip. Somebody had fairly obviously wiped all the traces away. There were no fingerprints on the door handle either.

Catherine's phone suddenly bleeped. It was Grissom.

"Is the owner of the office still there?" he wanted to know.

"Yes he is, why?" Catherine asked.

"Ask him to have a look around, see if there is anything out of place." Catherine slightly bemused by this request, but decided to humour him.

Thomas slowly walked round, going everywhere and looking in every office. After ten minutes he called the two CSI's over.

"This picture's upside down."

Warrick took the picture down and brushed fingerprint powder over the space behind the picture. A handprint emerged from the wall.

Thomas backed up disgusted.

"What the hell was going on in here." He said. Warrick lifted a print from the wall and they went back to the lab.

After running the print through the database they got a hit after thirty minutes. It came up a 100 match for Frank Parsons. Warrick immediately called Brass who said he would bring Parsons in.

The Sheriff entered and seemed rather annoyed that Grissom had spent the last two hours watching a film on TV

"We have a copycat Sheriff." Grissom explained. "He seems to have been influenced by the film Seven. Only our "John Doe" is killing people for committing the seven contrary virtues, not the seven deadly sins."

Rory Atwater did not like the sound of that

"We have a suspect though Jim told me he was going to arrest someone called Frank Parsons, the first victim's girlfriend." Grissom nodded in the affirmative.

"Good." Rory said satisfied. "We'll end his run before he can kill anymore." With that he left

It was end of shift and Grissom's team wanted to go home, everyone apart from Sara and Grissom. They sat waiting in his office for the phone call, which soon came.

"You're not going to believe this." Brass began.

"What does it say at the crime scene?" Grissom asked him interrupting.

"Humility" Brass replied.

Frank was sat on the floor his right hand glued to his file box on the front of which was written the contrary virtue in what looked like a cut up certificate, also glued on. His left hand had been severed and was no where to be seen. A knife had been plunged into his back.

"Humility, A modest appraisal of one's own abilities and achievements" Grissom defined.

"He was certainly that." His brother Simon said. "We tried to get him to hang his certificates up and put his trophies on display, but he never did." He swallowed. "It devastates me to see one of his certificates used like this."

David was finishing up his examination.

"He's been dead for about 48 hours." He told Grissom and Sara. "Cause of death was no mystery." He finished up and Sara started to print the file box. Rory who had rushed over to the house beckoned Grissom outside

"You said this killer was following a pattern. Have you figured out the pattern yet?" Grissom nodded.

"He's going in reverse of the killings in Seven after Wrath, Envy and Pride the next murder in line was Lust. Chastity is the diametric opposite of Lust, so you're looking at someone who's celibate."

"Well that narrows it down a bit." Rory said sarcastically. Sara came back to report that there weren't any fingerprints on either the box or the cut up certificate. Since it was end of shift anyway, Grissom and Sara decided to handover to Conrad Ecklie and his team and they went home to bed.

Grissom's rest didn't last long however. He'd just got out of bed when Ecklie rang him up at home. The normally full of himself supervisor of day shift had been horrified by his last case of the day.

"What's the address?" Grissom asked him. Ecklie told him and Grissom immediately rang Sara and told her to meet him there.

Tears streamed down Sara's cheeks as she took in the shocking scene in front of her. The victim Scott Pederson was lying naked and spread eagled on his bed. His arms and legs were tied to the bedposts, and his genitals had been severed. A pool of what looked like drying seminal fluid was at the base of the bed. The word Chastity was written in it with what looked like a wooden stick.

Grissom was grim as he looked at Scott's body. This killer he swore copycat or no copycat was not going to complete his portfolio of murders

As Sara was too upset to carry out the processing Grissom did it himself. Just like the previous crime scenes this one had no fingerprints at all. A sample of the seminal fluid was taken and the body turned over to the coroner

"What's this?" Chandra asked when Grissom handed her a small jar.

"Seminal fluid, from our latest victim" Grissom replied grimly. "I don't want to hear that it came from our victim."

Grissom had called a conference meeting with his team to evaluate what they had which wasn't much. Since they had no fingerprints or shoeprints they decided to go with surveillance videos. Luckily Adam still had the security tape of that night in Entryway, but this was only from the cash point area. There wasn't an exterior shot.

Nick went to get it and brought it in. Just after 9:15 by the video's time code a motorcycle courier did come in with an envelope. Despite the baggy motorcycle overalls, he seemed very thin and wiry

"There's our man." Catherine observed. "Now where is our Good Samaritan waiter?" Stuart Michaels walked into frame. "There you are." The two CSI's saw the courier hand Stuart the "Patience" envelope for Elizabeth McNeil and leave.

Further analysis of the video revealed that the courier had arrived by motorcycle, and had parked it outside, clearly visible through one of the windows. After some digital analysis by Warrick they got a number plate, which Warrick ran through the Vehicle Registration database. Unfortunately it came up as false.

"Dammit." Warrick cursed frustrated at four hours work just for nothing.

Chandra didn't have any good news for Grissom either. The seminal fluid had come from Scott Pederson.

"There has to be something to connect this guy to the murders." Rory Atwater vented, his patience at an end, when he came in to CSI for an update

"I'm sorry Sheriff, that's all we've got." Grissom told him. "Our murderer obviously has an obsession with the movie, he's using that as a template, but he's putting his own sick twist into the mix."

"Wait a minute, if memory serves me correctly didn't the killer give him self up after his fifth victim." Nick pointed out.

"The city would like to avoid that event if possible CSI Stokes." Atwater growled. He left very unsatisfied.

"Warrick, go back to the security camera footage from Entryway." Grissom told him. "See if you can identify the make and model of the motorcycle, we'll try and identify him that way.

Warrick nodded and after four hours off intensive work, he was back.

"Anything concrete" Grissom asked Warrick.

"Yes" Warrick said. "The motorcycle is a Mugen Honda JS43. Only three were sold in the Las Vegas area. One of the owners, a Stephen Richmond, moved away six months ago to Oregon, a second a Mark Danvers has had his of the road for the last month with a transmission failure. The last one is registered to a John Doe, literally."

"Do we have an address?"

"Yes, it's an apartment building in the east of the city."

"Okay." Grissom decided. "I'll call Brass tell him to meet you there."

It started raining when Brass and Warrick arrived at the apartment building. The two men picked their way through the puddles and opened the front door. It wasn't exactly high living accommodation. The faded wallpaper was peeling off the walls, and the stale smell of urine seeped everywhere.

"Perfect." Brass said sarcastically. "Welcome to Paradise Towers". Warrick didn't trust the lift to function properly, so the two of them travelled up to the fifth floor by the stairs. 'John Doe's' apartment was down the bottom of a long corridor. The door was locked so Brass knocked on the door.

"Mr Doe." He called feeling immediately very stupid. "LVPD open up." Warrick absently looked up and saw a trench coated man in a pork pie hat at the end of a corridor. He was carrying some groceries and seemed to be reaching into his pocket for his door keys.

In an instant he had pulled a gun and started firing. Brass fell to the ground winded as two bullets flew past his ear.

"I'm fine, go get him." He ordered Warrick, who drew his gun and gave chase. He ran down to the end of the corridor and just saw the figure run down the fourth floor corridor. A door opened and someone beckoned Warrick through their apartment to a fire exit.

Warrick thanked them and ran as fast as he could down the metal stairway. The man who was using a fire exit further down, fired a couple more shots in his pursuers direction. Warrick ducked and dropped onto the street. The man crossed the road between two lanes of traffic parked at some traffic lights. Warrick knew he had to cross the road to continue the pursuit, but the queue was too long.

"Where's Brad Pitt's stunt double when you need him" Warrick said to himself as he jumped onto the first cars bonnet and began to prepare to jump onto the second. He made the jump but slipped on the wet car and his hand went through the windscreen. He screamed in agony.

Leanne working on Reception at CSI noticed that Grissom seemed a little agitated. He was talking on the phone to Brass and she knew that Warrick had gone with him. She heard Grissom use the word 'ambulance' and immediately knew that something was wrong.

"Mr Grissom." She asked him as he came out of his office. "Has something happened to Warrick?"

"He was chasing a suspect and he injured himself." Grissom told her. Tears began to rise in Leanne's eyes.

"Is he going to be okay?" If Grissom was surprised at the revelation that his friend was secretly dating Leanne he didn't show it.

"He damaged several tendons in his hand." He told her gently. "He'll need surgery but he should be fine. If you need to go to the hospital, I can phone Rachel to come in and cover for you"

Tears spilled down Leanne's cheeks.

"Thank you." She said softly.

Brass had got the apartment manager's permission to enter 'John Doe's' apartment and was looking round when Grissom arrived. The centrepiece of the whole apartment were two huge metal shelves filled with videos, DVD's and books all about the film 'Seven'. Most of the videos and DVD's were still wrapped in their cellophane, indicating they hadn't been used yet. The wall was full of 'Seven' posters and lower down on the shelves were boxes and boxes of magazines, each one mentioning the film. Their mysterious killer even had a file box of printouts from IMDB of various people's comments on the film.

"Gil, come and look at this." Brass shouted. Grissom ran to the bathroom, and saw Brass looking through 8x10 black and white photographs. They were pictures of their killer's victims, Elizabeth McNeil and her boyfriend, and the Kindness and Chastity victims too.

"Where's the phone." Grissom suddenly said.

"What's wrong with yours?" Brass asked him.

"No you don't understand." Grissom said. "He's going to call us." They searched for a couple of minutes and found the phone on the floor next to a linen cupboard. It started to ring.

"I just want to say I admire you law enforcement people more every day. I'm sorry one of you got hurt. I'll be readjusting my schedule in the light of this little setback."

"A setback, I'll give him a setback the bloody lunatic." Rory Atwater raged. "Tell me you found something in that apartment to tie him to the murders."

"I'm sorry Sheriff we didn't find a single fingerprint in that apartment." Grissom told him.

"I don't believe you. LOOK AGAIN."

"Sheriff, listen to me." Grissom advised. "We are up against a killer who has based a killing spree on a movie he's probably seen hundreds of times. We need to let him play this out."

"Miss Stuart, your boyfriend's ready to see you." A Nurse told Leanne at the hospital. Leanne thanked her and went in to see him.

"Hey baby." Warrick greeted her with a kiss.

"I was so worried." Leanne said her eyes misting up again

"I'll be fine." Warrick assured her. A knock on the door caused Leanne and Warrick to turn round. It was Sara.

"I'll wait outside." She said with a smile.

"Central Dispatch, what is your emergency?" Kate Turnbull asked her nameless caller.

"I've gone and done it again." A male voice replied. Kate frowned. What was this bozo on about?

"I'm sorry I don't understand." She said to her caller

"I've gone and done it again." The voice repeated. He started giving an address of an office block in the city and a floor, and then hung up. Kate entered the information on her terminal. It flashed up the name; "Hayes & Oliver. Attorney's At Law".

Kate went to her supervisor Jason and told him about the call and the address that the mysterious caller had given her. Jason told her to send a unit to the office block immediately.

"Say that again." The security guard said again to Detective Lockwood.

"We have a report of an incident on the 24th floor." Lockwood repeated. "We believe a murder may have been committed here."

The security guard was still sceptical but allowed Lockwood and Catherine Willows to travel up to the 24th floor and investigate. The office door to Hayes & Oliver was unlocked and Catherine and Lockwood entered, guns drawn.

"What's that smell?" Catherine asked, curling up her nose.

"Almonds" Lockwood said recognizing it. The smell grew more potent as they approached an open office in the north end. The name on the plate in front of the desk read "Cora Morris". The almond smell was so pungent that Catherine had to put her hand over her mouth. A word had been carved on the desk.

Catherine moved closer and read the word out loud. "Diligence"

"Think!" Lockwood ordered the security guard. "Did you leave your post?"

"No." the guard insisted.

"You're lying." Lockwood shouted. "Miss Morris's murder was recent, which means that sometime in the last hour, you left your desk. So don't bullshit me"

"Okay, I left for about 15 minutes to get a sandwich, but that's all." The cowering security guard admitted. "Please don't tell my employers, I've got a wife and kids to feed…"

"Get out of my sight." Lockwood barked.

Catherine finished processing the scene. As usual there were no fingerprints on door handles, or footmarks of any description. The only clues left behind, were a pen, a foil packet that presumably had held the cyanide, and a mobile phone. Catherine dusted the pen, the phone, and the desk blotter. The only fingerprints came from one person, and Catherine had an inkling that they would come from Cora Morris. But she bagged them anyway.

"There he is." Lockwood said as he moved through the surveillance footage. A masked thin man walked through the building. Without the security guard he was effectively being given an all access pass. Lockwood's phone rang. It was Kate at Central Dispatch.

"The phone number that rang in the call was a mobile the number is 555 222 5363. It's registered to a Cora Morris. Does that help?"

No, it bloody didn't Lockwood thought to himself. He told Kate that yes it did and hung up. He removed the video from the machine and took it with him.

He arrived back at the precinct in about 20 minutes passing a thin wiry man sitting on one of the visitor's benches, his hands firmly in his pockets.

He doesn't seem very pleased about something Lockwood thought. He went over to the front desk for his messages, the clerk telling him stiffly that he should contact his wife, because she wasn't an answering service. Lockwood moved towards the glass doors that led into the main body of the station, and the thin wiry man got up to follow.

"Detective" He called to Lockwood. Lockwood turned to look at him, the man took his hands out of his pockets, and the desk clerk screamed as she saw his bloody fingers. "You're looking for me." John Doe said. Lockwood ordered him to get on his knees and put his hands behind his head. As he moved behind him he saw the beginning of a tattoo on the suspect's right hand. Lockwood ordered him to reveal it, which he did. It read "Abstinence"

"Has his lawyer turned up yet?" Grissom said. Brass shook his head. "Something's not right." Grissom added. "He's skipped a virtue we haven't found "Liberality" yet."

"Don't sweat it." Brass told him. "We've got him, that's all that matters." Grissom however wasn't so sure. The John Doe on Seven had an endgame. Therefore his copycat had to have one too. A young woman was led into the cells to talk to her client. Grissom thought she looked familiar as she passed by him, but wasn't sure from where.

He walked slowly following her into the cells, to discover that she wasn't his lawyer after all. He drew his gun as he saw John Doe on his knees and his 'lawyer' pointing a gun at his head.

"Gemma" Grissom said to the Entryway waitress. "You don't want to do this?" The pretty brunette looked up, tears running down her cheeks.

"Yes I do." She sobbed. "He killed my sister. He chopped her head off and posted it to me, in a box with Liberality scrawled over it in blood. Her blood" Brass had run to the cells with two other officers after seeing the scene on the CCTV, but Grissom waved them back.

"Give me the gun." He said gently.

"He deserves to die for what he's done." Gemma screamed.

"He will, but not like this. Please give me the gun." Fighting every emotion in her body, Gemma put the safety back on the gun and gave it to Grissom through the bars.

"Thank you." He said softly. "Where's your sister."

"She's at work." Gemma said wiping her face with the back of her hand. "She's a charity worker on Riverside Drive."

Grissom looked sadly at the decapitated body in front of him. The dead woman's boss had told him, she was the model employee adored throughout the company for whom no charity event was an event too many.

He opened his kit and put on a pair of gloves and got to work


End file.
